Southwest Should Seek LaGuardia Slots - Case Study Example

This move will facilitate Southwest’s firm grip on the lucrative New York market since the airline in the past has been serving only Long Island MacArthur Airport, which is fifty miles away (Prada & Keeton,2008).

Southwest’s growth strategy has always been to stay away from big cities characterized by delays in airports and instead concentrate on secondary options, which are less crowded. Such an approach as this has worked for the airline in the past allowing it to swiftly turn around its aircraft in addition to flying more routes while at the same time staying realistically on time. Nevertheless, regardless of what looks like a cannot-lose situation, the airline could also be taking a huge gamble in LaGuardia; although a pretty secure one.

Southwest is an airline that is known for its reliability in timely service, not only for its customers but also behind the scenes. The delay issues experienced in New York cannot just be underestimated-every one of the big 3 regional airports is frequently among the poorest performers, especially in terms of punctuality-and will pose a great challenge for Southwest to surmount. Thus for Southwest to turn around the situation, and sustain its fast-turnaround approach of operation, it has its work already cut out.

Whitney Eichinger-Southwest’s spokesperson has been on the record pointing out that the airline has proved critics wrong and succeeded in Philadelphia where everyone thought Southwest would run into difficulties (Heskett & Sasser Jr, 2013). Nevertheless, a move to LaGuardia is an exceptional opportunity that will not only open a huge population of business travelers but also the 8 million New Yorkers-some of whom may forego a ride to Long Island simply to snag low fares offered by the airline.

This would especially be a catch if Southwest flies to Chicago and possibly Florida. The Airline’s fans in New York will especially be extremely happy since they will say goodbye to long and boring drives out the expansive Expressway of Long Island. In addition, Southwest will have access to a wide pool of weekday customers flying to such cities as Dallas, Toronto, and Chicago. The airline will also increase its market share further by capitalizing on such vacation destinations as the Caribbean and Florida (Prada & Keeton, 2008).

Thus by flying into LaGuardia, Southwest can now ferry anyone faithful to it to one of the most convenient airports in New York. In addition, this new route will assist the airline to acquire corporate agreements since the majority of companies have such huge business in and around New York that they require a corporate agreement with an airline that is reliable, affordable, and keeps time for their business to prosper. In the past Southwest could not get such comprehensive corporate clients since such businesses are needed to provide a definite amount of flying to the airline that is contracted to maintain the contract.

Thus, if Southwest can win customers in New York, it will be an opportune moment for them to increase their business and hence earn more money (Heskett & Sasser Jr, 2013). Southwest will also strengthen its foothold in New York which has always been a weak spot in its network inspite of the region being America’s busiest market, particularly for business travel as well as the metropolitan that is mainly densely populated in the country. Southwest management is confident also that the chance for greater exposure in LaGuardia is worth any headache that delays in the new route could bring to the airline whose competitive edge relies on fast turnarounds between landings and takeoffs.

Nevertheless, the airline through its joint venture with ATA gained knowledge as well as an understanding of delay patterns experienced at LaGuardia and is therefore confident that its complicated scheduling software will be of great importance in assisting the airline to reduce delays in its entire network (Prada & Keeton, 2008).